Treatment of Zaghari-Ratcliffe amounts to torture, say family

Husband of woman jailed in Iran makes claim to UN and has resumed campaign for her release

The treatment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman serving a five-year jail sentence in Tehran, amounts to torture, her family have claimed in an appeal to the UN. Richard Ratcliffe, who has resumed campaigning for his wife’s release after promises of an early release or a furlough were unfulfilled, said that a submission had been presented to the UN special rapporteur on torture.

It has outlined why in their view her 22 months of imprisonment over allegations of spying amounted to torture, given “the conditions of solitary confinement, the psychological pressures in the arbitrary detention and court proceedings, and her use as a tool of pressure in wider diplomatic affairs”.